I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Month: March 2018

It’s been a busy week. That’s a good thing of course, but finding garbage is also a lot of work. At one point I think I spent 9 of the previous 24 hours on the road, either driving or sorting, and also did plenty of other work on top of that. It can be hard to take a break (especially when you’re on a hot streak) but I skipped today’s morning run to ensure that I don’t get burnt out. Also, it’s my birthday tomorrow, and I know that a birthday trash run will be more fun if I’m well rested.

Earlier this week I happened upon one of my best photo hauls in quite some time.

I saved a few shopping bags stuffed with photos. I looked through them a bit, but there were so many that it got kind of overwhelming. See the video below for context.

And that was just one bag! I did get a few shots of some of my early favourites, however. Click on the picture (particularly the “view full-size” button in the gallery frame) for a better look!

I always feel conflicted when finding old photos. For one, it’s impossible to know if everyone in the family consented to these being thrown out, and even if they did they may come to regret their decision somewhere down the line. Because of that I feel bad separating them, and usually keep the collection intact for at least a few months just in case I hear a story in the news about someone trying to track down some trashed photos. Beyond that, however, I can’t hold onto this stuff forever, and eventually the temptation to sell them is too great. Going forward I might try listing photos on eBay with the relevant last names – at least then there’s a better chance at someone in the family finding them.

I found a couple other goodies in those bags. Here’s a well worn Soviet 25 ruble bill from 1923, not too long after the revolution.

Here’s the back. According to one of my Instagram followers the text addresses the rapid inflation that occured in the early Soviet years, telling users that the value of the 1923 ruble is now equal to the value of 100 rubles in 1922 (and also, to trust in the republic). An interesting thing for sure, and though quite well worn it’s still worth around 20$.

The bag also held this neat Montreal Tramways student card from 1939. The paper was pretty beat up, and it looks as if the previous owner glued it to some fabric to keep it intact. The kid went to Baron Byng High School, a now defunct institution on St Urbain that at the time primarily served a lower-income Jewish population. Mordecai Richler is probably its most famous alumni. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before, so it was a fun find for me (especially since I have an appreciation for old ID cards and transportation ephemera).

I also found a nice vintage Lucien Piccard watch box, which should sell for around 40-50$…

… and a small collection of jewelry. It looked as if someone had picked out the gold (except for maybe those two pieces to the right of the marcasite Star of David on the bottom), but there’s still a few nice pieces here, including some quality silver. The sterling & eilat cufflinks + tie clip at top left are probably my favourites, they should sell for a good price on eBay. I also like those Mexican silver cufflinks with the tigers. Zoom in for a better look!

On Tuesday afternoon I went on my first ever run to one of the nicer parts of town. I hadn’t gone before, largely because the timing of the pickup is difficult to fit into my schedule, but this time I finally bit the bullet. As it turns out I picked a great week to go! I happened upon three great piles overall, one each on the first three streets I covered. I was accosted by some grumpy old lady at the second one, but managed to save some good stuff before leaving.

I didn’t have time to document any of that stuff yet, but here’s a peek into a bag from the third spot. It contained a great collection of vintage / antique silverware, a lot of which is plated but some of which is 80% or sterling silver. I should be ready to share pictures of my haul sometime next week!

Otherwise, I’ve already started adding to my collection of found change.

I found this drawstring bag full of pennies not far from home. I don’t bother rolling pennies (plus, everything here smelled like cigarette smoke) so I brought them to the coin machine down the street for a quick buck.

The pouch ended up holding 1366 pennies and 1 dime. Easy money!

Here’s another collection of change I found just a minute away from home. I can almost get throwing away smaller currency, but if you throw away loonies it means you have way too much money. Those four one euro coins are also a nice get, though I’m not sure how to cash them in – based on my preliminary research it doesn’t seem like the currency converter folks deal in coins. If you know a place that takes them let me know in the comments! Worst case scenario though I’ll sell them to a friend who’s travelling to Europe, or at a yard sale on a deal of an exchange rate. I think I have around 30 euros in coins that I’ve collected over the last few years.

That’s all for now! I think I’ll need to hire my friend again next week to help me take pictures of all the junk I’ve found. In the meantime, here’s hoping I have a fun and profitable birthday run tomorrow morning! (My special day is on the 30th, just to clarify since I’m posting this quite late!)

I had some success last week despite finding little on three of my five runs.

The pile of bags above provided my first quality finds. They were a bit of a challenge to dig through, however. One of the first things I found was a box full of old soup bones, which was a bit unusual.

I also saved a couple of these doohickeys, which leads me to assume that someone living there was a doctor.

There was a lot of dirty old junk in those bags, including tonnes of old food, medicine bottles, and cosmetics. I also saw a couple of syringes, but they weren’t in “poking” position and thus not dangerous. Still, I prefer not to see them in the first place. I took a bunch of the older bottles (I’m a sucker for old containers) and left the rest for the truck. The little vials in the middle are filled with demerol, a fairly strong opioid. I’d guess that most of this stuff dates from between the 50s and the 70s.

I also got lucky while sifting through the pill bottles – one of them contained a bit of jewelry.

The watch was an old Birks Challenger, which I’d guess dates back to the 30s or 40s. It’s dainty and glamourous, featuring a set of stones that could be small diamonds. It worked when I first wound it but it has since stopped ticking, indicating that it needs some servicing (but probably isn’t totally busted).

The bottom case is marked as being 14k gold. I’m guessing that the rest of the watch is as well, though there is some light discoloration around the sides that make me wonder (ie: I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be white gold or yellow gold, especially considering the bottom is white and the top is yellow). I might have to get it tested to be sure. If it is gold, it’s a nice if not super valuable find – ladies watches are generally less valuable than mens, and it’s not particularly heavy (and thus not worth much for scrap).

Each of these rings could end up being more valuable than the watch. The middle one is marked as being 18k gold – the design isn’t exceptional though (or maybe it’s worn out) so I’ll likely sell it as scrap. It weighs about 3.4g, making it worth about 144$ minus the cut my jeweler takes. The ring on the left is marked as 14k gold, it’s pretty but the band has a break in the back. The one on the right (which has a sort of art-deco look) is marked “Pall.”, which I think means palladium, and also features a little arrow stamp.

I’ve learned a lot via trash picking, but I still don’t really know anything about stones. In this case I have no idea if these rocks are diamonds or an imitator like cubic zirconia. If you have any tips or suggestions please let me know in the comments!

I’ll definitely be returning to this spot next week. Each house has a “brand” of trash, and though the stuff here was pretty gross overall I still saved some interesting and valuable stuff.

I went on quite the trek on Thursday. I started in Ahuntsic and found this neat old Laurentian Spring Water contraption (but not much else). The crate is well made, in particular the four pieces of wood on springs which help protect the bottle – you can see more pictures of a similar crate on this message board post. I imagine it was designed for local delivery via flatbed truck, but based on the red stain to the inside I’d guess that the carboy was more recently used for winemaking.

After Ahuntsic I flipped a coin to decide between Cote St-Luc and Verdun. Verdun won, but almost all the trash was gone by the time I got there. Garbage used to be collected pretty late on that route, but I guess the schedule has been changed around a bit.

From there I headed to Côte-Saint-Paul. There was garbage, but I had no luck. Same with Westmount.

On the way home I decided to cover the last few streets of Outremont. It was there that I found this mound of trash – it looked like junk, but there was a lot of it. Plus, I remembered that there was a “sold” sign out front not long ago.

The bags contained lots of food and pantry items, totally uninteresting papers that should have been in the recycling, old and often abused electronics, and an assortment of other crapola (I’m surprised I’ve never used that word on the blog before…). However, I did save some yard saleable stuff, as well as a couple minor treasures.

The most valuable piece here is probably that little doohickey in the middle. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, but it features an image of a building with a chet (a Hebrew letter) cut out of the middle. Zoom in for a better look! It’s marked 14k on the back and is worth about 250$ for its weight in gold. However, it could be worth more if there’s a market for whatever it is. If you’ve seen anything like it, please let me know in the comments!

Otherwise, I found a single gold earring (probably worth between 30-50$, depending on the karat which I can’t make out), a funny penguin pendant, some attractive but probably fake (they aren’t signed on the back) Chanel earrings, and a nice little bracelet. The pearls seem real and the metal is sterling, so maybe it’s something fancy.

Here’s the hallmark on the back of the ribbon charm, as well as the back of the Jewish thingamajig. If you know who designed it, please let me know!

It’s been a good few weeks in terms of finding gold. It really depends on luck – sometimes I’ll go a while without finding any and other times it’ll come in waves. I love finding gold (as I’ve mentioned many times now) and I hope it keeps coming my way!

My mom came to town this weekend and helped roll my found coins (we also did other things of course, like go to the Leonard Cohen exhibition at the MAC). The total came to about 70$, most of which was found in the last six months.

I gave her some garbage in exchange for helping me out, like this vintage tin I found in Rosemont a while back (she loves ships). She also went home with an old laptop and some portable phones. We went on a couple garbage runs too, though we didn’t find anything super amazing. Here’s hoping it’s a little warmer next time she’s to visit!

Last week I happened across a big trash pile in one of the rich neighbourhoods. I was running a bit late so I threw the most intriguing bags in the car for later sorting. They ended up being filled with an almost incomprehensible amount of cosmetics, many of which were used or expired. Unfortunately, used cosmetics are a tough sell because of legitimate health concerns. I expect the risk is actually fairly low, but it’s high enough that I don’t want to bother selling them at yard sales. eBay won’t let you sell them either, so even if they were made by Chanel they’re probably best left on the curb.

Regardless, I was able to fill a plastic tub with stuff I can sell or use myself.

My most notable save was a collection of quality perfumes, my best in some time. The Annick Goutal and Prada have already been reserved for a total of 35$. Four others are on eBay, while the rest made their way into the yard sale bin. They should earn me a couple hundreds bucks after all is said and done.

This place also tossed a collection of broken or obsolete cellphones. The total of eight from one household might be some kind of record! They’ll go to the e-waste bin.

I found this 160gb iPod Classic later that night. It has a busted screen, but fortunately the market for iPods is still pretty strong. It sold quickly on eBay for 61$.

These boots were the crown jewel of a big collection of rich people clothes I found a while back. They’re 20-eye boots by Doc Martens, and this model (1B60) sometimes sells for over 200$ on eBay. The boots look barely worn, so I’m hoping they sell for around that amount. There was lots of other quality stuff inside those bags, which for whatever reason were often placed in the recycling bin. I donated a lot of it to charity, and will try to sell the rest (including other nice boots) at a yard sale.

I found these Wedgwood platters late last fall and just got around to taking pictures of them. They look pretty old, and the signature on the bottom is pressed which is something I haven’t seen before. They all have “3DL” stamps as well, which appears to be a date mark from 1883. If true, they’re in pretty good condition for their age! I’m definitely not an expert in pre-1900s china, so if you happen to know their value please let me know in the comments.

While cleaning out this jewelry-containing pouch from the Very Rich People series I saw some small golden beads (mostly around the top in this pic) that I hadn’t noticed previously. They seemed heavy for their size, so I set them aside to show to my gold guy when the time came to melt some scrap. As it turns out they were 18k gold, and a little handful of these beads earned me around 170$. Not bad eh? I love gold!

Speaking of gold, a couple weeks ago I saved this coin on a chain. I didn’t think much of it at the time, in fact I don’t even remember where I found it. But I later noticed a 14k gold mark on the chain, and thought the coin and frame (though unmarked) could be gold as well. Well, the coin was gold – nearly pure gold in fact – while the frame that held it in place was 18k. The coin is an Austrian 4 Ducat, dated 1915 but almost certainly a restrike from much later. They’re pretty common and don’t have much value beyond their gold content, so I sold the coin and chain to my gold guy for nearly a grand. That’s a great payday!

This is probably the most valuable thing I’ve found that I can’t remember the origins of. I can narrow it down to a couple of spots, but I don’t think I’ll ever remember with confidence which one it came from. I can say though that the people who tossed it were pretty well-to-do. Maybe someone got it as a gift, and didn’t appreciate it or understand its full value. Regardless, I’ll bet I spend the profit better that they would have.

It’s been a bit chilly recently, but should warm up again in the coming days. Hopefully it’ll feel like spring for real in time for my birthday on March 30th. I have an idea for a little garbage-related video I’d like to make, but I don’t want to do it until the weather is solidly above zero.